En Absentia

Star Frog Games is now bi-coastal. Yesterday I sent an email to The ADA that went something like:“Hey, what’s up?”To which he replied: “Not much, starting classes and so on.”To which I replied: “Wait, in Florida? Shit.”

I’m torn about the entire thing. I’m making the rational decision to be happy, while I worry about the project. I find that I’m so conflicted that I can barely fashion a coherent thought about it, which isn’t good. What I do have are continued assurances such as, “I think we can do this. I remain confident.” Oddly, I don’t think that it’ll change anything too much. I mean, now when I have meetings I’ll just put him on speakerphone or conference call through the all powerful sorcery of internet. Otherwise, the series of tubes that connect everything, everywhere has always been the main method of, and source of, information and communication. The internet is a 24 hour thing after all.The silver lining (other than one of my team members is now going to a prestigious art college) is that now our schedules may meet somewhere in the middle. He has a habit of being up until 3 or 4 AM and I’m usually up until 1AM. So now I can probably send emails when I’m up and get emails the same night, not the next morning due to the time zones.You know, with enough silver linings you can knit a sweater.

The thing is, the other real thing, dropping the pretense of form, Anguel moved. He’s away. My friend and continued compatriot for the last year and change is someplace else. Having grown up as a military brat, where I moved constantly and so did my friends, I try to put on the strong face and say that I’m used to it. But I’m not. It’s impossible. We’ll make due.

What it means further, (back to Producer mode now) is that I need to communicate a lot more with the team members I had more or less handed off. Basically the Team is arranged by discipline. The Art Director/Animator was the main point of contact for the entire art team. He would translate what I want to something that made sense to The Background Artist and kept the whole thing consistent throughout. The Tester is the same way. He asks people to test the game and they talk to him and he to me. It adds a layer to an otherwise small team, but allowed me to deal with a very small number of people day to day. With my main line of talking on the far side of the country, I’ll have to figure out something else.

I remain confident.

It’s not over ’till you’re underground. It’s not over before it’s too late.